QUESNEL, B.C. — Christopher Kempling applied for a counseling job in his public school
district in Canada’s western province of British Columbia. In June, he was not
only turned down — he was banned from all counseling positions district-wide.

Underqualified? He has a doctorate in
psychology.

But he also has strong Christian
beliefs and a history of speaking out against the homosexual lifestyle.

His case and a growing number of
developments in Canada and
the United States
make for an interesting paradox: While homosexual activists have been clamoring
for tolerance, there is a growing trend of intolerance for those who speak
against their lifestyle, especially those who speak from profound religious
convictions.

“Although I was the most qualified
applicant, my superiors don’t wish to allow me access to students who may be of
alternate orientation (even though there has never been a complaint against me
from one),” he said.

Kempling’s saga began in 1997 when, on his
own time, he wrote several letters to his local paper in Quesnel.
He criticized his teachers’ union for promoting homosexuality.

A member of the National
Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, he cited research
showing the lifestyle’s dangers.

For these “discriminatory
writings,” Kempling was convicted of “unbecoming
conduct” in 2002 by the British Columbia College of Teachers. He’s been
suspended without pay twice, for a total of four months.

He was also punished by school
officials when later, as a Christian Heritage Party candidate for Parliament, he publicly explained his party’s opposition to
same-sex “marriage.”

He unsuccessfully appealed to both
the province’s appeals and supreme courts as a violation of his rights of free
speech and religion. The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal refused to hear
him, and finally the Supreme Court of Canada in January declined the case.

“It’s astounding this can be
happening in a free and democratic society,” said Kempling,
50.

U.S. Trend

In Canada, same-sex “marriage” is
legal, and public criticism of homosexuality is a hate crime (a bill passed in
2004 added “sexual orientation” to a federal law that forbids anyone from
speaking or publishing materials that could bring “incitement of hatred and
genocide” against listed groups). Alberta
talk-show host Craig Chandler faces costs up to $250,000 to fight a complaint
that he allowed a criticism on his website.

“The writing’s on the wall for the
U.S.,”
Kempling said in a phone interview, commenting on the
growing push to squelch any criticism of the lifestyle. “Unfortunately a
precedent is being set,” he said. “If other teachers try to speak up, courts
will say, ‘Look at the Kempling
case.’”

Already, Canada has
influenced American law. Massachusetts’
Supreme Judicial Court
in the 2003 case Goodridge vs. Department of Public Health ordered
the state legislature to legalize such “marriages.” Benjamin Bull, chief
counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said that in the case, the “only
authority cited on point was the Court of Appeals of Ontario, Canada.

“There was no American case law to
cite, since no American court had ever held that there was a fundamental
constitutional right to same sex ‘marriage,’” Bull said.

Now that it is legal, officials
and advocates are working hard to make it seem normal. Several Lexington, Mass.,
parents made nationwide news, and one father went to jail, when they protested
their elementary school’s homosexual-friendly curriculum. The Massachusetts
Legislature in July quadrupled the 2007 budget to nearly $2 million for school
programs aimed at “outreach to” and “support and safety of gay and lesbian
students.” It created a permanent Commission for Gay and Lesbian Youth that
will be handpicked by homosexual activists to oversee how this money is spent.
The commission is not subject to the control of any other department.

The trend is national. The
National Education Association voted in July to eliminate “discrimination”
against same-sex unions and homosexual “marriages” in states that have
legalized them. The 2.8-million member union also decided to replace the word
“tolerance” with the word “acceptance” in its policies.

There’s intimidation at work too,
marriage defenders claim. Those who signed a marriage amendment petition in the
BayState had their names and addresses
posted on a website put up by homosexual activists who said its purpose was to
“promote dialogue.” When churches last fall urged parishioners to support a
petition for the amendment, protestors stood outside warning, “When you sign,
it’s online.”

Among the repercussions: a Truro man was denied reappointment to a town post and a
Catholic businesswoman in Provincetown
was verbally harassed.

Tom Lang, founder of the
pro-homosexual “marriage” website Knowthyneighbor.org,
defended the action. “We do not condone yelling and insults,” he said. “That
incident was wrong.”

As for the protests at churches,
he said the group was respectful. “Just as people have a
right to sign a petition, people also have a right to question those who
would have their rights taken away,” he said.

Fighting Back

But grassroots groups are fighting
back, and one that’s had some success exposing homosexual activism is Mass
Resistance.

“I don’t think [this cultural
battle] is as hopeless as people think,” said the Waltham, Mass.-based head,
Brian Camenker, who is Jewish. He has found that
photos and the Internet are great communicators.

For example, Macy’s department
store was taken by surprise in June when thousands of callers jammed its Boston and New York phone
lines to protest a Boston
window display that touted “Gay Pride Week.” The display featured two male
mannequins, both with enlarged breasts and one wearing a rainbow-colored
wraparound that resembled a skirt.

Mass Resistance e-mailed photos to
its supporters; within two days Macy’s removed the mannequins.

Dr. Gilbert Lavoie, an East Boston
Catholic with public health experience (he served two years in the Army as
chief of epidemiology and infectious diseases for the European Command and also
worked for the World Health Organization Smallpox Eradication Program in
Bangladesh), recently spoke on Mass Resistance’s weekly radio show about the
issue’s long-term effects.

“We should not be teaching our
children that homosexuality and heterosexuality are equal,” he said. “It’s a
terrible thing to confuse the minds of young children.”